Lab Assistant
by Dornalca
Summary: Donna saves a person from an accident and gets a job, working for an old friend of the Doctor. Post-Journey's End, spoilers for new season 4. Enjoy.
1. Chapter 1

First Fanfic ever. Hope you enjoy. Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of the characters.

Donna Noble sat on the chair at the café and glared at the inoffensive menu before her. Once again, her application had been turned down by a prospective employer when she had been unable to explain the lapse in her resume. Two bloody years that she couldn't remember!

And even her granddad had been no help, avoiding the subject for some reason and distracting her from the topic. She couldn't exactly shake sense into him like she could with someone else, he was her granddad!

For a moment, she seemed to remember doing just that to someone but the image vanished abruptly before she could tell the details. It was the same blasted thing that had happened every day, memories appearing and vanishing at lightning speed. She was really tempted to get someone to take a look inside her head but there was the problem of money. And since she couldn't get money without a job – she stopped before she went back down that path for the thousandth time and ordered her usual lunch, eating the sandwich and tea without really tasting them.

Finally Donna stood up and slung her pack over her shoulder, ready to go back into the fray. The bell tinkled faintly as she stepped out and onto the sidewalk. For a moment, she was at a loss, realizing she had not looked where she was going when she had stalked off. She started to retrace her steps and then sniffed the air. That was an odd smell, something burning, maybe?

Then she caught sight of smoke puffing out of an open door and ran towards it, realizing halfway there that she had no idea why she was running _towards_ a fire rather than away. She stopped in the doorway and blinked hard as she saw a very complicated machine belching out what she suspected were toxic fumes, judging by the color.

There was a body lying against the wall that seemed to have been hurled there and the fumes were already inching towards it. Donna saw this in one look and ran towards the machine, holding her breath as she entered the cloud. She looked at the unfamiliar machine and then her hands started to move by themselves, twisting the nozzle and pulling a lever hard. The smoke wavered and then the nozzle that had been emitting it was suddenly sucking it back into the device. Donna sighed in relief as the last of the smoke faded and then turned to the person who had probably been working on it.

"You alright?" she asked the lab-coated person who had been shaking their head. "Want me to get you an ambulance?" The figure looked up and gave her a weak smile.

"Nah, I'm fine," she said and stood up, wobbling slightly but otherwise looking unhurt. "Thanks. Who are you?"

"Donna Noble," Donna replied and eyed the odd figure warily. Something was odd about her. "Why are you wearing a lab-coat over a sweater?"

"It felt a bit nippy in the lab," was the reply. "I'm Dr. Rachel Anne, and I'm trying to figure out this system." She walked over to what Donna realized was part of a car engine and tapped the device affixed. "This is part of an ATMOS system, and it works just fine. The problem with it is that it also is designed to emit quite deadly gas when it is given the correct trigger."

"And you're trying to fix that?" Donna asked, looking at the device. It seemed familiar in the same way the weird memories did. "Sounds simple enough," she said cheerily. This earned her a dirty look.

"Easier to talk about than to do," Dr. Anne said and bent to look at the device again. "Very smooth work by the way," she added and looked quizzically at Donna. "Are you a scientist?"

"No," Donna said and looked at the device again. "I just looked at it and it seemed obvious really." Dr. Anne looked at her with a thoughtful expression.

"What's your job?" she asked and Donna winced.

"I'm out of work, actually," she admitted. "Why, you looking for help?"

"Actually, yes," Dr. Anne said and walked over to another odd device. She opened a spigot and poured tea into a mug. "Care for some tea?" she asked and, when Donna nodded, poured another cup. "If you can look at things and figure them out, you might be better than my last assistant." She chuckled. "He nearly burnt his hand off after I warned him about the stove being on and was very foolish."

"I've known people like that," Donna said and sipped her tea. It was delicious, though a bit sweet. "Want to see my resume?" she asked and Dr. Anne shrugged.

"If you like," she said and took the folder that Donna handed her. Her eyes skimmed over it and then paused. Donna winced. "You had no work for two years?" Dr Anne asked in a puzzled voice.

"I have amnesia," Donna said, deciding to get it over with. "I don't remember anything from those two years." Dr. Anne sat down and looked at her resume again, looking at the date.

"Christmas?" she muttered. "Tell me, have you heard of the Racnoss?" She looked up to see Donna wince and close her eyes. "Are you alright?"

"Fine, fine," Donna said and rubbed her head. "But I suddenly saw this weird image of a creature when you said that name. What do they look like?"

"Here's a picture of a Queen," Dr. Anne said and tapped the keyboard of her computer.

"That's what I saw," Donna breathed out and clutched at her head. Dr Anne stood hurriedly and helped her sit down. "Why can't I remember?"

"It could be that they wiped your memory," Dr. Anne said and shrugged. "The Racnoss or Torchwood could have done so. Torchwood is an organization that fights against alien incursions."

"You part of it?" Donna asked and was surprised by the sudden grin.

"Too confining," Dr Anne said with a shrug. Donna got the feeling there was something more but Dr Anne went on quickly. "But I do some freelance work for them. In the meantime, I think if you still want the job then I can probably take a look at the memory problems. How about friends and family?" she added. Donna looked bewildered.

"What about them?" she asked.

"You could ask them, if you've got any," Dr Anne pointed out.

"My granddad and my mum are the only family and they keep trying to put me off finding out," Donna said and looked at Dr. Anne. "What should I tell them?"

"Tell them that you got a job," Dr Anne said practically. "But I wouldn't advise telling them about me trying to solve your amnesia. They might be trying to protect you, from Torchwood or from aliens even. Best not to worry them, wouldn't you say?" Donna nodded reluctantly.

"I'll tell them I'm working as an Igor for you," she said and saw a bemused expression on her new employer's face. "You know, Dr Frankenstein and all that," she added. Dr Anne looked just as blank. "A movie," Donna explained and Dr Anne finally seemed to get it.

"Oh yes, I remember now," she said and smiled. "I don't think I need a gravedigger but you never know." She tossed back her tea and set the mug down. "How soon can you start?"

"Tomorrow," Donna Noble said and drank the last of her own tea. "Thank you." She stood up and almost danced across the floor. She paused at the door. "Should I bring a lab-coat?"

"No there's plenty in the closet," Dr Anne said and waved her off. As she sipped her second cup of tea, she realized that this was the best stroke of luck she'd had since the Dalek had shot at her and only hit her watch, breaking it open. She now had an assistant who seemed to have hidden depths, perhaps even a fob watch of her own. If so, the Time Lord who called herself Rachel Anne wondered if that was what had happened. Perhaps she had had the Chameleon Arch used on her, that was the most likely explanation, which meant one person had to know about her.

The Doctor. She smiled faintly. If he had used what was meant to be the ultimate punishment on a Time Lord, she definitely wanted to know why.

It should be pretty obvious who this Time Lord is from the name, so now review and tell me what you think so far!


	2. Chapter 2

I'm glad to see reviews so quickly. A prize for Saphreanna Grea for guessing correctly.

Wilfred Motts was looking through his telescope when he heard someone walking up the hill behind him. He turned to see Donna walking briskly up the steps.

"Any luck Donna?" he asked and then saw her wide grin. Ah good luck, then, he thought.

"Well, I wasn't able to get a job at the places I checked," Donna said and sat down next to him. "But on my way home, there was a bit of an accident and I helped clean it up and the person who I helped said she could use a good assistant. She didn't mind the gap in my resume, even."

"That's wonderful, Donna!" Wilfred said and hugged his granddaughter. He hadn't seen her so happy in weeks and knew she had been worried that she would be unable to get a job. Now there was a fresh sparkle in her eyes. "What are you going to be doing?"

"From what I can tell, mostly double-checking the stuff," Donna said cheerfully. "Dr Anne is a bit inclined to jump first and ask questions later," she added with a grin. The grin faded and she got the same odd look that she always did when trying to remember things. Wilf had to stop himself from mentioning that she had experience there.

"Sounds like a perfect job," he said instead. "You certainly find more things to clean than I ever notice." Donna rolled her eyes at that. "Probably you get that from your mum."

"Certainly not from my granddad," Donna retorted.

"What's this Dr Anne working on?" he asked, trying to keep her from trying to remember. Donna brightened up at that.

"Oh, several things," she said. "I saw her working on what she called an ATMOS device but I looked her up and she seems to mainly work on microchips and suchlike. Got several patents," Donna added.

"And she hired you off the street?" Wilf was faintly alarmed. Donna paused and considered.

"Well, I did help save her life from a cloud of toxic gas," she added and shrugged. "I think that's the main reason." Wilf relaxed. That didn't sound like something planned out.

"I'll drive you there," he said and Donna rolled her eyes.

"I don't think I'll need a chaperone," she said with a grin. "She didn't try to make a pass at me or even flirt."

"I'd just like to meet her," Wilf said, giving his granddaughter a stern look. "And I'd like to make sure there's little chance of you turning up scorched or burnt by some lab accident."

"Probably less danger there than there is walking across the street," Donna said and stood up. "Got to go, I need to read the stuff she gave me to refresh my mind for working." She walked away and Wilf leaned back, hoping that the Dr Anne was exactly what she seemed. There was a good way to find out. He pulled out his – or rather, Donna's – upgraded cell phone and dialed Torchwood.

The next day, Donna woke up refreshed, her incessant dreams having apparently taken the night off, although for some reason she remembered standing next to Dr Anne and building something. She shrugged it off and got dressed, filling her pockets with the jelly babies that she had acquired a taste for, before trotting down the stairs to eat breakfast.

"Sleep well?" her mother asked and Donna nodded. "I hear you've got a job. Hope you haven't overslept."

"Nah, I've got plenty of time," Donna said, but she did bolt down her food anyway.

"Ah, Donna," Wilf said as he came down the stairs. "I've already eaten so we can go as soon as you're done." Donna nodded and gulped down her tea, anxious to leave before her mum asked about Dr Anne.

"Don't stay out too late," Sylvia Noble called after her and Donna nodded.

"So, do you need directions granddad?" she asked Wilf as they got into his car.

"Course not, I looked it up on the map," he replied and Donna rolled her eyes.

"I really don't think that you needed to do a full-out investigation on my employer," she said.

"What makes you think I did?" Wilf asked and Donna leaned back in her seat.

"Because I never told you where I needed to go or even her full name," she pointed out and chuckled. "Not that I'm exactly surprised, by the way."

"Well, I was curious," her granddad said with a shrug. "She sounds like an interesting person."

"No kidding," Donna said and regretted it at once. It seemed to come from the same portion of her mind that had fixed the device. Fortunately her grandpa did not seem to notice. They arrived at the building quickly and Donna noticed that there was no garage or parked car nearby.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Wilf asked, looking at the pleasant street that looked more like a residential area. Donna nodded and walked up to the correct building – without gas streaming out it this time – and knocked briskly on the door. The door swung open.

"Ah, good morning Miss Noble!" came a voice from inside. Wilf tried to see into the dark room but had blink several times before feeling safe about walking inside. Inside, a figure was bent over a table, and Wilf gasped slightly. The figure turned and Wilf breathed out in relief as he realized that whoever this was, she was not the Doctor. But the odd resemblance persisted.

"Good morning," she added and nodded to him. "Lab coats are in the closet and I could really use a helping hand here. This thing is _heavy_." Wilf hurried over and heaved at the machine. It was indeed very heavy, but he and (presumably) Dr Anne were able to lift it and place it on a much sturdier table.

"Pleased to meet you, Dr Anne," he said after catching his breath. Dr Anne blinked at him and seemed to be wondering how he knew her name. "I'm Wilfred Motts, Donna's grandfather."

"Ah, pleased to meet you," she replied, giving him a relieved smile. "My memory is sometimes a bit wobbly." She shook his hand vigourously and Wilf got the same odd feeling.

"Tell me, how safe is Donna going to be?" he asked. "I understand she rescued from toxic gas. Is that a regular occurrence?"

"Nah, just a special experiment that Torchwood wanted me to do for them," Dr Anne said with a cheerful smile. "Mostly I work on nice safe stuff like computers and stuff, but I do have a few odd pieces that get sent over here. They're not something I'm supposed to talk about though," she added apologetically.

"So, what do we do first?" Donna said briskly as she walked out of the closet, giving Wilf a look that told him he was being way too paranoid. Dr Anne grinned back at her and gestured her over to the device.

"Not very dramatic equipment, but quite interesting," she said and tapped several glowing lights on the machine.

"When should I come around tonight, Donna?" Wilf asked. "Or will you hitch a ride with Dr Anne here?"

"I don't have a car," Dr Rachel Anne said and shrugged. "Allowing for lunch and tea break, probably eight of the o'clock."

"Right, I'll be back around then," he said and Donna nodded and bent over the machine. He let himself out, closing the door behind him.

"So what will this do?" Donna asked after the door closed. She was wearing a lab coat that had several pieces of equipment stuck in it and as Dr Anne watched, she tapped the lights in a pattern that lit up several others.

"It is supposed to be a teleportation device," she replied, eyeing the new lights. "My own invention really, but I'm having problems with it." Dr Anne tapped a quick succession of commands and then smiled. "It seems that whatever you just did has cleared up the locator problem though."

"I wish I knew how I knew," Donna said glumly. She had somehow understood the device and it still made sense but the information simply hung in her mind without an explanation.

"I've made some calls," Dr Anne said and strode over to a computer that looked as though it had been disassembled and only put together part of the way. "Torchwood has no record of you interfering with their investigation, but it turns out that the Racnoss were defeated by someone else." She paused and turned to Donna Noble. "His name is entered as John Smith, but I can backtrack that as far as I need to. I think he may have been involved in your problems."

"You think that he might have taken my memories?" Donna asked and then paused. "How much do you know?"

"Quite a bit," Dr Anne admitted. "Have you heard of the Doctor?" She moved forwards as Donna gasped and steadied her. "I should have told you to sit down," she said. "Sorry."

"I remember the name," Donna said and her head exploded in pain.

"What else?" Dr Anne asked quietly. "What about Gallifrey?" Donna nodded and Dr Anne smiled faintly. "What about the name Rani?"

"That's familiar," Donna said and shook her head. "But it always seems to get farther away as I get nearer to it."

"Interesting," Dr Anne said and sat down beside her puzzling new assistant. "I think we should get back to the device, let your mind rest a bit before we try again."

"Probably a good idea," Donna said and popped something into her mouth. She noticed the stare and held out her hand. "Do you want a jelly baby?"

"Thank you," The Rani said and took several. If Donna had known her name, and the Doctor's name, not to mention Gallifrey, what did it mean? As Donna got up and strode over to the teleporter, she put it all together and nearly choked on the jelly baby. The Doctor had not been seen on Earth since the Daleks had stolen it and now she found someone who knew Time Lord names and devices and she could remember that one regeneration had kept a bag of jelly babies with him at all times.

The pieces fit almost perfectly. Wilfred Motts had been very protective of her; he probably knew who she really was. She had even felt what she thought was a regeneration when she had been freed from the Chameleon Arch but had not been sure. Admittedly, it was unusual to have cross-gender regenerations, but the Doctor had always been unusual.

It all made sense now. Donna Noble was the Doctor.

I hope you enjoy this update.


	3. Chapter 3

Glad you liked the twist in the end. I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

By teatime, the Rani had become even surer of her guess. Donna exhibited the same rather irritating quirks that the Doctor had, boundless energy, a mind that leaped around as if it were on a pogo stick and, what had truly irked her when they were younger, a brilliant mind.

"Oh, this is a lovely, lovely piece of work!" said Donna, twisting her body to look under a device that the Rani was very sure was Sontaran manufacture. "Even got most of the oscillator chips still in it," she added and leaned further. The Rani nodded and grabbed her hand before she could unbalance and sighed, vexed.

"You really should try not to get so excited," she said and hauled her assistant upright. "Still, it needs to be fixed and I can't get into the main control module to take care of that without breaking it."

"Got a sonic screwdriver?" Donna asked hopefully. "I could probably take care of the fault quite easily with one." The Rani kept her smile hidden

"I think that you'll have to make one," she said and the absent-minded nod confirmed her theory. The trouble was, now what? The Doctor did not have the fob watch on her, and she could not figure out where he had put it, if indeed he had one. "It's time for lunch, Doctor," she said finally, testing the mind and got an abstracted nod in response. A Chameleon Arch would not have left responses like that.

"I'll be there in a minute," Donna Noble said and twisted a knob on the Sontaran cloaking device. Abruptly she toppled over. The Rani was at her side in a flash but relaxed when she saw the reason. The Sontarans had built in a security device that simply sedated every non-Sontaran by shutting down the higher brain functions briefly. She knelt down and pressed her fingers to Donna's face, then gasped as she saw the golden glow in her closed eyes.

"Your regeneration," she said to herself quietly and began to grin. "You botched your regeneration." She had heard that it could happen; regenerating only partway from an attack and this was the proof. Donna opened her eyes to find Dr Anne's face very close to hers and grinning delightedly. For a moment, she wildly wondered if Wilf _had_ been needed as a chaperone but then she remembered the device.

"That thing knocked me out," she said with a note of irritation. Dr Anne sat back and raised her eyebrows in her infuriating way.

"You really need to work on your senses," she said cheerfully. "By the way, I think I've figured out why you have so few memories," she added and Donna's eyes opened wide.

"How?" she asked and winced at the headache that erupted. The Rani paused, trying to figure out how to break the news.

"I think you may be non-human," she said finally and held out a cup of tea. Donna took it reflexively and stared at her in shock. "You see, I think that you are the Doctor."

"What?" Donna shouted. Then she stiffened and looked at Dr Anne, seeing several faces overlaid upon it, all with the same gleam in her eyes.

"The Doctor is what is known as a Time Lord," Dr Anne went on and Donna felt the name echo and resound inside her. "He is also the protector of Earth and humanity. Several weeks ago, he rescued Earth from those who stole it and then vanished from everyone's knowledge."

"You say 'he'," Donna protested and looked down at herself. "I'm not a bloke."

"Time Lords have a special ability," Dr Anne said and smiled. "It allows them to cheat death and live. It is called regeneration." Donna gasped as she remembered being filled with light and sensing her body altering.

"Always wanted to be ginger," she muttered and then blinked in disbelief. "You mean it changes me from male to female?" she asked incredulously. Then her eyes narrowed. "And how do you know so much about it?"

"It is rare that the gender changes," Dr Anne admitted and then shrugged. "But you always wanted to be different. And I know because I am a Time Lord."

"Rani?" Donna asked in disbelief and then her headache struck again, nearly doubling her over. The Rani grabbed her and held her up, her fingers finding the points of contact on Donna's face.

"Yes, old friend, the Rani," she said and the headache was gone. She withdrew her hands as Donna straightened up. "And only the Doctor would recognize me," she added.

"Then why can't I remember?" Donna asked, her mind whirling in shock. "Even with your name and mine, I can't remember much more than that." The Rani took a deep breath.

"I think you had only a partial regeneration," she said and shook her head. "The Dalek weapons were probably responsible for that." For a moment she shuddered, remembering the pain as the Dalek weapon struck her and was only mostly absorbed by the watch. "If you partly regenerated, you would be stuck as a Time Lord in a human body, and a human mind would melt under that." She smiled faintly.

"So if I did remember, I could die?" Donna asked and shuddered. "No wonder Granddad doesn't want me to try that."

"He may have been your companion," the Rani said and shrugged. "It would explain a lot." Then she smiled. "But I think that I can help you. It will take a while and a lot of work, but all you really need is a bit more regeneration energy." Her smile turned to a grin. "And while what happened to you is not a common occurrence, it is by no means unknown."

"You think you can induce a full regeneration?" Donna asked, and then nodded. "We don't have the right equipment but we can jury-rig something." She grinned and the Rani knew that grin of old. "But why are you so anxious to help me?" she went on. "From what I remember, we have not been good friends for a long time."

"But we were," the Rani pointed out. "And since there are only the two of us left, that seems to me to be reason enough for helping." Then she paused and a grin split her face. "And I never stopped respecting you," she admitted. "The Doctor, the one who would break reality itself for his friends, the Oncoming Storm that even the emotionless Daleks feared, one only two Time Lords who could actually challenge me in a test of minds and win some of the time." She shrugged. "I'm lonely. Even the smartest human's can't really keep up."

"That I believe," Donna said and realized that she had not even thought about it. Then she had another thought and chuckled.

"Something funny?" the Rani asked suspiciously. The Doctor was an odd person at times.

"It's just that it seems ironic that the only ones left are the renegade time Lords," she said. The Rani nodded her agreement.

"We should break for lunch," she said practically and when Donna seemed about to protest, held up her hand. "No arguments Doctor. I don't want you to have that human body deteriorate on you. It's a lot more delicate than a Time Lord body and the limits are on you for now." She grabbed Donna's arm and almost dragged her out the door. "We are going to go eat."

"Right, no problem," Donna said, realizing that she had been feeling hungry for a while, just ignoring it. "Can we get more jelly babies? I ran out."

"No problem," the Rani said firmly. "_After_ we eat," she added.

Wilfred Motts had been busy as well, calling several people that he knew from the Doctor. Even Torchwood had not had much to say about Dr Rachel Anne, certainly nothing to suggest that she was anything more than what she seemed. Even so, there was something odd about her, something that made him think of the Doctor. He hesitated a moment, then called the number that Captain Harkness had given him.

"Hello is this Martha Jones?" he asked. At the acknowledgement, he went on. "I need to talk to the Doctor. It's about my granddaughter, Donna Noble."

Hope you enjoy this update. If not, please tell me what is wrong so I can fix it, and please review.


	4. Chapter 4

For reference, this is before the End of Time. This is still (for now) the 10th Doctor.

The Doctor was tired, very nearly drained. The battle for the lives of an entire cluster of stars had been bloodless but complex, diplomacy helping for once. His reputation as the Doctor had made the Rigellan Empire cautious and willing to talk, but they had not been friendly and it had taken him weeks to get them to agree. He knew that their empire was already doomed by history, though. The Second Great Human Empire had already begun in that time and soon enough they would encounter the Rigellans and more or less take over by being a lot smarter.

"I need a cup of tea," he said and got up. As he steadied himself, he heard the phone on the TARDIS control center ring and he groaned. "Why now?" he muttered darkly and picked up the phone. "If this not a major emergency then I am going to disconnect this phone," he said into the mouthpiece.

"It's about Donna," Martha Jones said and the Doctor suddenly forgot his exhaustion.

"What's happened?" he asked sharply. "Is she alright?"

"As far as I know, yes," Martha said reassuringly. "But her grandfather is a bit nervous about someone she's working for. Apparently she does some work for Torchwood and Donna is her assistant." She paused and the Doctor closed his eyes, knowing that something more was coming. "Doctor, he said that this Dr Rachel Anne reminded him slightly of you."

"What?" the Doctor said.

"He couldn't really say why, but he was sure of the resemblance." Martha hesitated again. "Could she be another regeneration of you?"

"I don't know," the Doctor said and sagged against the control panel. "I doubt it, but it is within the realm of possibility. Regenerations can be a bit random, though this would be a new one for the books."

"Can you come take a look?" Martha asked and the Doctor swallowed hard.

"If I met myself, that could be very bad," he said and shook his head. "You'll need to find out as much as you can about this Dr Anne and send it to me." He paused and added; "And please remember that it may not be me. If she resembles me, she may be a Time Lord in hiding." He didn't have to add the fact that she could just as easily be the Master's regeneration as his.

"I'll do my best," Martha promised. "By the way, I missed you at my wedding."

"Sorry about that," the Doctor said slightly sheepishly. "A very nasty fault in the TARDIS sent me into the path of an intergalactic armada and I was too busy to remember."

"Try to remember, next time," Martha said and the Doctor blinked at that.

"Next time?" he repeated slowly. "Is there likely to be a next time?"

"Just as a matter of course," Martha clarified. "I'll be in touch."

"Good to know," the Doctor said and heard her ring off. He started to wonder about the name but his body told him in no uncertain manner that it was going to collapse if he didn't rest.

Donna Noble was still rather puzzled by the fact that she had been a bloke, and not even human, but she had to admit, the evidence held together. The dreams certainly fit together, the ones with murderous pepper pots and flying creatures that tried to eat her and her hands moving to do things she only barely understood even then. The Rani, as she somehow knew was her employer's name, had identified several of the things, though she had kept her from breaking the walls of her memory so as to keep her alive.

"You know," she said aloud. "I always thought that I was nothing much, nothing special." The Rani nearly choked on her biscuit at that and Donna grinned back. "Maybe that was why I never thought that those dreams were real. I never thought I could do things like that."

"Probably a defense," the Rani said. "With Gallifreyan facilities, your recovery would be easier but this is hardly impossible." She looked at the calendar and then chuckled. "If we work hard, it'll be a Christmas present," she added. Donna looked at the calendar and chuckled as well.

"That's something to be celebrating about," she said and stood up briskly. "You think that I can help?"

"With the new memory blocks, you should be able to help with most of the machinery," the Rani said and stood up as well, slurping up the last of her tea. "If you start getting a headache, warn me and I'll take a look." She gave Donna a stern look. "We can easily take our time, so don't overwork yourself." Donna gave her an affronted look.

"Would I do something like that?" she asked and got a firm nod in response. She conceded the point. "Let's get to work."

Martha Jones was busy at her desk when she heard the email alert. She looked over and nodded as she took in the information. On the surface, Dr Rachel Anne seemed a bright but otherwise normal person, working on several 'black' projects for UNIT and Torchwood. She even had an academic record that was quite impressive and thorough. So why did Martha hear alarm bells whenever she looked at the identification picture?

"There's something wrong with her eyes," she muttered to herself. They were too bright, and she could see why Wilfred Motts had thought of the Doctor. But even so, the records were quite thorough. Then she looked down at the personal comments and saw a red-flagged entry. She scrolled down and stiffened, seeing the reference to 'an old fob watch that she carried around, discarded after being struck by a Dalek beam weapon and deflecting the attack enough for her survival.'

"Professor Yana had a long life as a human," she muttered and then shook her head. There was something important she was missing. This person was not the Master, since she was fairly sure that he would have moved against the Doctor already and Dr Anne had simply returned to her job afterwards. She scrolled down and saw the citation for bravery, drawing the fire of the Daleks to get the civilians out of danger. That sounded like the Doctor. But why would he become human again? She needed to get this to him as soon as possible but the situation seemed to be safe enough. Donna had not seemed to regain her memories and the Doctor, if that was who it was, would not want to harm her. He may have even hired her to keep her safe. Martha sighed in irritation. If she met this Dr Anne, she might trigger Donna's memories so she would have to send someone else. It was almost time for Dr Anne to be interviewed about her security clearance and Martha could get one of them to interview Donna Noble for those purposes.

I hope you enjoy this update. The plot is thickening.


	5. Chapter 5

I need more reviews please. Thank you for the ones already posted.

Donna's first week on the job was filled with excitement as the two of them began experimenting with the various machines that were required for her procedure. The Rani knew how they were made but the technology that they had been based on was far too advanced, forcing her to adjust them to the tech level they had.

"If only I had a TARDIS," she muttered to herself, eyeing the irritatingly primitive machine. Then she paused and began to grin. Donna looked at her and became very nervous.

"What are you thinking about now?" she asked cautiously.

"Well, a time machine is easy to make, more or less," the Rani said and began to drag a box of pieces from under the table. "But you need to have a reference point or you could end up anywhere." She grinned at Donna again.

"So you want me to serve as a reference point?" Donna said more than asked. "Where will you travel to?" She bent down and began removing pieces, her dormant mind telling her where to set up the circuits and arrange the crystalline components.

"I thought I might as well travel to when we've set up the device and copy the designs we've made to speed up things," the Rani said cheerily. "We just need to be sure that we are out of the place at the time I travel to and it'll be easy." Donna looked darkly at her.

"That is violating the rules of time," she said severely and the Rani blinked slightly at the sound of the Doctor's voice. Even knowing what she did, it was still rather odd to hear it from Donna.

"Not that much," she said defensively. "Anyway, that's what you did to ace a test once that you hadn't studied for."

"Point taken," DoctorDonna said and shrugged. It was something that would only get you a telling off for abusing your power on Gallifrey, and the Time Lords were strict about those things. "Don't do more than that," she added pointedly. The Rani adopted an innocent expression

"You have nothing to worry about," she said and looked as though butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. Donna snorted but made no other objections. The time machine was still not an easy thing to make and before they knew it, it was dark.

"I'd best be getting home," Donna said and stood up, wincing in pain at the sudden aches that she had been ignoring until now. The Rani looked at the time and nodded.

"I'd forgotten how quickly time flies," she said and stood up herself. "It'll be done tomorrow and then we'll be home and dry." Donna couldn't help feeling that saying that was unwisely tempting fate, but didn't say anything to try to keep notice being taken of it. She stepped out the door and closed her eyes, letting the 'Donna' personality wrap around her like a cloak. Wilf had been looking worried and so she had become better at acting normal. She took care to pretend to still be irritated by her missing memory and it seemed to be working fairly well.

"You alright miss?" said a voice from behind her. She turned and saw a tall dark-haired man looking curiously at her.

"I'm fine," she said with a smile. "I just wanted to get a breath of air before heading home." She looked thoughtfully at the young man and then frowned inwardly as she saw the outline of a shoulder holster. He looked to be military. "Dr Anne is inside," she added, acting on a hunch. "Got something you need her to do?"

"Yes ma'am," said the surprised young man. "Corporal Winters, UNIT. I take it you are her new assistant?" he added inquiringly.

"That's me," Donna said. "Donna Noble. Excuse me, I'd better get going," she added and walked briskly towards where Wilf had just driven back. She looked back in time to see him give her a grave salute. Wilf saw it too and beckoned hastily to Donna.

"Who was that?" he asked as she sat down in the passenger seat. Donna shrugged.

"Some bloke from UNIT that wanted to see Dr Anne," she said and shook her head. "Wonder what that salute was all about?" she wondered aloud. Wilfred seemed to relax at that.

"Probably nothing," he said and Donna rolled her eyes. Even before she found out what was going on she would have been able to tell he knew more than he was saying.

"How's mum?" she asked instead of pressing the issue.

"Still worrying about you staying so late," Wilf said with a smile. "She still hasn't met Dr Anne."

"Well, I could ask her over for Saturday night," Donna said thoughtfully. "I get the feeling that she doesn't get enough home-cooked meals anyway." Wilf looked at his granddaughter briefly, then back at the road. From the way she had talked, she seemed to be thinking of Dr Anne as more a friend than an employer.

"Your mum will like that," he said and swerved slightly to avoid a stray cat in the road. "I'm not sure Dr Anne will like it though." Donna chuckled at the thought.

"She'll be fine," she replied and leaned back in her seat. "I'm going to be needing a bit of rest. We've been working non-stop and my bones ache. It is fun though," she added hastily. Then she thought about the statement and realized that her granddad might take it an entirely different way. If she really was the Doctor and he knew about it, he might even not be surprised. She decided to play it up, mostly for laughs. "She has some very interesting equipment in her lab," she said in a tone that seemed perfectly ordinary. Wilf blinked at that and she could almost hear his thoughts.

"Really?" he said in a thoughtful tone and she could tell that he was having a moment of dawning realization. Of course, even if she was the Doctor, she didn't feel attracted to the Rani (possibly because she could remember a few nearly deadly encounters with her) but he didn't have any way of knowing.

"Oh yes," Donna said with a faint smile that she knew would fuel his suspicion. "And she lets me use any one of them I want while we have spare time." She wondered if that was a bit over-the-top but it appeared not; Wilf seemed much taken in.

"And she's your employer?" Wilf said cautiously. Donna saw the problem, and moved to forestall it.

"Oh yes, though she says that I'm good enough to get my own degree," Donna said. "She seems a bit shy about things so I'll have to convince her to come on Saturday, but I'm sure she'll like it. She doesn't get out much." That should do it, she thought with an inner grin. Come Saturday, Dr Rachel Anne would be meeting her mum and granddad with a very useful cover story. Donna wondered if she should tell the Rani or not, but decided that it would be loads more fun if she didn't.

Martha picked up the sheet of paper and read it with interest. Since the invasion by the Daleks, she had been one of the ones to put UNIT back together and so she was quite busy with paperwork these days but the report on Dr Rachel Anne and Donna Noble was interesting. Apparently the only odd thing Corporal Winters had noticed about Donna was that she had seen his concealed holster and that was nothing to worry about. Dr Anne was a bit different and the profile gave her an odd feeling. It was remarkably close to the Doctor's but then, so was her own. If this Dr Anne was a former companion of the Doctor than that was hardly something to worry about.

Then she blinked and turned to her computer. A quick scan showed that Dr Anne was an orphan and even the DNA tests had turned up no relatives. If her parents had dropped her here before the Time War, she could easily be a Time Lord, perhaps with a Chameleon Arch used to protect her. If so, she would be someone the Doctor would be very glad to meet, but Martha did not want to get his hopes up, especially after what happened with the Master.

She picked up the report and began to study it carefully. As soon as she was sure, she would call the Doctor and tell him and if this was a Time Lord, he could go meet her. If not, if she was someone like the Master, they could both go meet her.

The Rani tapped the time machine lightly and nodded. It was perfectly ready to go, but she had promised to have Donna with her and she didn't think she'd be impressed by any excuse. Too much like the Doctor, she thought. But she still wasn't sure when to arrive. Finally she nodded and selected the day. Christmas Day, two weeks away, the perfect time, she said to herself. With luck, they would be at a Christmas dinner and not have to stop a project for her.

Soon the Doctor would be restored and then, well then, they'd have to find out where he (or she) had left the TARDIS. Then she'd have to figure out what to do next.

Hope you like this update, please enjoy.


	6. Chapter 6

Thank you for your reviews. I hope you enjoy this update.

The Rani looked at Donna blankly.

"You want me to what?" she asked incredulously. Donna rolled her eyes.

"If you want to defuse the suspicion, you should try to be less anti-social," she said. "I know you aren't fond of family dinners, but this would help us have time enough to fix me before they call in the marines or something." She decided not to mention that her granddad thought that they were dating. That would make it even more difficult.

"But we do need to keep working on the device," the Rani protested. "I really don't think that this is necessary." Donna sighed with exasperation.

"It would delay us a lot more if any other people from UNIT start coming around here," she pointed out. "I rather think that was my granddad checking up on you. And you must admit, you could use a bit more meat on your bones," she added with a smile.

"Hmm," the Rani said and appeared to be thinking. "Is your mum a good cook?" she asked finally.

"Not gourmet or anything but she can make some very good and filling food," Donna said, knowing she'd won.

"Alright," the Rani said finally. She turned to see Donna already bent over the machine and suppressed a sudden urge to kick her over. "We can get this up and running now," she added.

"Oh yes, there's just a few minor calibrations to make," Donna said. She began typing.

"Fast typing," the Rani said in an abstracted voice. She had found a circuit that had wobbled out of place and was delicately nudging it into place.

"I can type more than a hundred words per minute," Donna said and grinned. "How far into the future will you want to go?" The Rani considered this.

"Let's shoot for Christmas," she said finally. "That should work out fairly well." She did a once-over and then nodded firmly. It was ready to go. Donna tapped in the coordinates and nodded briefly.

"No problem," she said and the Rani nodded back. She sat down in the chair and held the machine up to her face. It looked primitive and unwieldy to her Time Lord senses but she knew that it would work. She took care to go over the temporal coordinates, remembering all the times the Doctor had ended up in various random places after carefully entering in the data. Every time, he had said something like 'Now I know what I did wrong,' and then end up somewhere even more peculiar. From what she could tell of the coordinates, they were accurate but she triple-checked them anyway.

"I'm ready," she said and tapped in the command sequence. The unpleasant whine of machinery was a far cry from the pleasant thrumming noise of a TARDIS but she braced herself and managed to keep her cool. Donna activated the beacon and sat down as well, bracing herself.

"Systems are go," she said with a grin. The Rani took a deep breath and flipped the switch. Immediately she was thrown into the spinning and twisting vortex of time, feeling the force of Time itself around her. But she was a Time Lord of Gallifrey, and she felt the power of time around her every day. She let the power flow through her, burning and renewing as it struck. The energy that lay beneath her skin felt the intrusion and answered it, enshrouding her in a cloak of power. Her eyes glowed with the raw fury of Time and she laughed as it crackled through her. This was where you learned if you were a true Time Lord, braving the power of the Vortex and letting it burn into your body the eternal mark of the mastery of time, the regeneration that proved to all who see that time had no dominion over you. Then she felt the pull of the device and allowed herself to be dragged forwards, exiting the Vortex as easily as she had entered. The Rani found herself in the same room and she scanned it quickly, eyeing the desk. There were several pieces of paper with schematics on them and she crossed quickly to them.

"Good, you're here," said a voice from behind her. She turned to see a hologram emitter standing in the corner and her own face was coming from it. "I need to fill you in on a few things that are going to happen soon for you. The plans for helping a Time Lord recover are on the table but you need to take this emitter with you when you leave. And you must not tell anyone about this until necessary." The Rani paused and then grinned. "You'll have to build your own emitter once you are done, because if you leave this one here then we'll be facing some stiff temporal paradoxes and the Doctor will be ticked off."

Donna looked up as the beacon began to hum. The Rani had told her that she needed to activate it as soon as possible so she had activated immediately. She eyed the portion of space that had suddenly begun to glow and stepped back, wisely as it turned out. The glow intensified suddenly and the Rani stepped out, glowing with golden light that blazed like a supernova. For a moment, her mind nearly burst from the shields around it as that light triggered so many memories it nearly threw her to the floor. Then the light faded and the Rani looked like the same slightly absent-minded woman as she usually did.

"Are you alright?" she asked and Donna nodded, her mind reasserting the shield. The Rani smiled in relief and sat down, on what turned out to be thin air. The look on her face was priceless. Donna couldn't help laughing, and the Rani, after glaring for a moment, began to chuckle with her.

"Sorry," Donna gasped out finally. "But you really should look before you sit down." The Rani gave her a look.

"I thought that I had calculated out the vectors," she said and got up, giving the chair a look that should have made it burst into flames before sitting down on it. "I have the designs, but they are going to take a while to make." She held up several sheets of paper. "My own handwriting too," she added smugly.

"How long?" asked Donna. The Rani paused and looked at the plans carefully.

"If I had to guess, you can tell your family that you'll have an interesting Christmas present," she said and shrugged. Donna snickered and the Rani looked at her in surprise. "I said something funny?" she asked, clearly puzzled. Donna had been considering the cover story that she had concocted and the impressions that her mother and grandfather would get from that statement were easy to determine.

"I was just thinking of something," she said and the Rani gave her a suspicious look. "Are you coming to Christmas dinner?" she asked and smiled as her friend was diverted.

The UNIT squad that had been monitoring the lab had not picked up the temporal-spatial travel, not realizing that their equipment was monitoring the wrong thing. The human time travel would become far more advanced than most other races, but Time Lords used the Vortex, an energy construct that had been made so long ago that even their memories and histories did not record it. It was stable and secure, enduring through everything that its masters had put it through and so the Rani had used it without even realizing it.

The team had recorded everything that emerged from the lab, and so the readings were picked up but ignored when they seemed to be simple radiation. The Doctor could have told them what it was, and for that matter, anyone who looked closely at the reports about the Doctor would rapidly come to the conclusion that he used something much different. Unfortunately, none of the UNIT soldiers knew that they were monitoring a Time Lord, merely a suspected alien of unknown origins. And there were hundreds of those in London alone.

The readings had been sent daily to the local office of UNIT and then directly to Martha Jones, who carefully compiled them into a report that she planned to hand over to the Doctor as soon as he appeared anywhere. Unfortunately, he had told her when she had called that he was being called by something he called the Ood and so she knew it would take some time before he appeared again. Still, nothing dangerous was happening so far and she was beginning to think she had been paranoid. Certainly Dr Anne had not shown any change in her work, although she did seem to be less social than before. She also remembered the Doctor saying that he would detect any Time Lord that was unconcealed and that the only reason that the Master had hidden was the Archangel network, which was gone now.

Unfortunately, she was not aware that the Rani had realized this within seconds of regaining her mind and used a device that easily masked the natural telepathy that all Time Lords had, using an old design that had been designed for too-powerful telepaths to allow them sleep. It had not been easy to make but she knew how to conceal her mind briefly. It looked like an ordinary lab-coat but she had used the techniques that the Doctor had used, making the pockets a great deal large on the inside. It was easily large enough to hold the equipment that was necessary and unlike the Doctor, the Rani had no problem with using weapons.

The Rani was, in fact, looking forwards to the next invasion. With the Doctor (as she thought) out of the picture for now, she would have the full resources of UNIT to make the next bad guy aliens regret their attack. If they attacked before she had revived the Doctor then she would not even have to worry about his (or, as she thought, her) scruples. And while she was not even close to being the kind of sociopath that the Master was, she was not a nice person to people who were trying to kill her.

Hope you enjoy this update. Sorry about the delay, but I had a nasty case of flu. You might notice the place where I stopped yesterday and had to lie down. Please review and tell me what you think.


	7. Chapter 7

Glad you like the story so far. Enjoy this update.

Wilfred Motts opened the door and smiled at Dr Rachel Anne.

"I'm glad to see you came," he said and Dr Anne nodded politely, clearly nervous. Wilf remembered the Doctor saying that he didn't do domestic very well and wondered again about this scientist. She seemed more and more like the Doctor, but since he had talked to Dr Martha Jones, he knew that the Doctor had not regenerated. It was still very strange. He ushered her into the entranceway.

"What's for dinner?" she asked, sniffing the air and cheering up.

"Shepherd's Pie," he replied. "With fresh Yorkshire puddings," he added and saw her smile widen.

"Ah, excellent," Dr Anne said and walked into the living room. She beamed at Donna and sat down across from her in a soft chair. "So," she said in a casual voice. "Your mother is in the kitchen, I take it?"

"Of course," Donna said and noticed her granddad standing behind the chair. "I think you took my granddad's chair," she added and the Rani jumped up before Wilf could demur. "Here, come sit down," Donna said and the Rani cocked her head to one side, analyzing the odd tone in her voice, before shrugging and sitting. Donna leaned on her and the Rani was somewhat puzzled.

"Have you been having problems in your experiments?" Wilf asked from where he sat. The Rani looked surprised.

"Not drastic problems," she said and hesitated. "You understand, I can't go into detail, but the only problems we are having are to do with converting the theory into reality, grunt work really." She shrugged. "Still, it should be done – barring unforeseen circumstances, at least – by Christmas Eve."

"We should be able to make it to Christmas dinner," Donna said and Wilf noticed Dr Anne blink at the word 'we'. She did not object to the choice of pronoun, clearly relaxing in the comfortable surroundings.

"If you've finished that, you could probably spend your holidays here," Wilf said to Dr Anne, wondering how she'd react. She seemed a bit surprised by the offer but nodded.

"A very kind offer," she said and smiled wryly. "If nothing interferes, I would be delighted." She looked at Donna and wondered again why Donna was being so cozy. Then she looked at her grandfather's face and closed her eyes in exasperation. To someone who could determine a molecular pattern from taste, the signs should have been far more obvious but she was not exactly good at understanding humans, even after being one. Donna should have told her that she was planning to decoy people like that, though.

"So you work for UNIT?" Wilfred asked and she nodded.

"I'm a independent contractor," she qualified. "I do some work for UNIT, some for civilian enterprises, and even a rare piece of work for Torchwood." She watched his eyes and could tell that he knew about Torchwood. That could be a bit tricky if she ran into Sarah Jane Smith, though she was fairly sure her disguise would work on her.

"Anything interesting?" he asked politely and Donna saw the Rani's eyes light up.

"Well, the quantum singularity device we've been working on is quite promising," she said and shrugged. "Needs a bit more work before it does more than flicker amusingly but the variations should be quite interesting when it does get up and running. Even so, the really interesting one is the scrubber and we should be more or less done with that one by Christmas, easy. It's mainly the recursive algorithms that need to be dealt with before it can be effectively implemented, but that shouldn't take too long to deal with." She took a breath and Donna realized that she was probably going to elaborate. Before she could begin, Sylvia Noble came out the kitchen where she had clearly been listening.

"Supper's ready," she said briskly and Donna jumped up, Dr Anne following. Wilfred took a moment to consider what the odd woman had said. If he remembered things correctly, the Doctor had called the ATMOS devices 'air scrubbers' and he wondered again about Dr Anne. When she had started talking, her expression had been very similar to the Doctor's, and he idly wondered if the Doctor had a sister. He would have to put it to Martha Jones when he talked to her next.

"Tell me," he said in a casual voice. "Have you ever heard of someone called the Doctor?" He was watching her in what seemed an idle way but he caught the reaction and the quick glance towards Donna. When she spoke, though, he could not detect any change in her voice.

"I believe I've heard some stuff from UNIT," she said and looked questioningly at him. "Why?"

"Just the mention of the scrubbers reminded me of something," he said evasively and let her see his glance towards Donna. Her eyes narrowed and she nodded thoughtfully.

"Well, let's not let the food get cold," Sylvia said and sat down next to Donna. Dr Anne drew out the seat across the table from Donna and looked at the plates in admiration. They were piled with the brown shapes of Yorkshire puddings, dripping in gravy and the Shepherd's Pie was steaming from the oven. She sniffed the aroma with relish and bowed her head for the blessing, then began digging into the food. Donna grinned at her obvious enjoyment and her mother looked flattered.

"There's plenty for seconds," she said with a smile at Dr Anne who was clearly in her good books. Dr Anne nodded in understanding and continued eating.

"I must say, it's been a while since I've had a real meal," she said after her plate was nearly empty. "I usually just head over to a diner for dinner." She swallowed the last of her pie and smiled gratefully at Sylvia Noble as she ladled more food onto the plate. Wilf had seen the Doctor smile like that only a few times but the resemblance was uncanny. He decided to let the topic slide for now, though, and began questioning her about her work. It was quite interesting, the little that he could understand of it at least, and he wondered how the Doctor would react to her. Then he looked at the way she was wolfing down her food as if she had not eaten in a while and had the distinct suspicion that they would start talking and probably forget to eat.

It was almost nine before the Rani took her leave. It had been a rare opportunity to socialize and while she was not exactly someone who enjoyed company, she found herself actually enjoying the distraction from her work. She wondered idly if this was why the Doctor had companions with him. Then she sniffed the air and smiled as she picked up the trace scent. It smelled of burnt grease and iron and she turned to eye the construct.

It looked Sontaran and she realized that the ATMOS system had doubtless had a tracker on it in case someone tried to back-hack the device. She grinned and scanned the area for inconvenient watchers. She could pick up the output of surveillance devices that were monitoring her opponent but none were terrestrial. She grinned and the construct came to a halt at the unexpected response.

"Typical Sontaran handiwork," she said with contempt. "You never seem to get the idea that brute force is not a substitute for skill." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a metal cylinder. As the construct leveled the lasers at her, she flicked the switch and a glowing light erupted from the hilt.

She held her blue lightsaber in a stance that told the construct that she was trained. "You should probably be running," she said with a smile that held very little humor. The construct answered with a barrage of lasers, but the Rani easily blocked. "I'm hardly Jedi material," she said casually. "But I've been there a few times and I had some spare time to fiddle around, so I thought, why not?" Then she strode forwards, smiling all the while.

The construct tried to back away and concentrate fire on her but it was too late. The Rani sliced down and across and the construct collapsed into three pieces. She grinned and deactivated it, replacing it carefully in her pocket. "Pity there weren't more of them," she said aloud, hoping whoever was watching would take her advice. When a few minutes passed by, she sighed in disappointment and walked away, deciding that the Sontarans had probably only a limited presence nearby Earth. It really was a pity.

There were no human-developed surveillance devices watching her but one of the non-human ones had been detailed to watch her by UNIT. The device had been used by the Sontarans, oddly enough, to monitor the human activity during the ATMOS incursion and had been recovered afterwards. Martha had been mostly reassured by the fact that Dr Anne did not appear to be dangerous and had let the soldiers return to their jobs.

The 'spy-cam', as it had been dubbed, could easily monitor several hundred locations with the greatest of ease and so it was generally reviewed on a daily basis but the backlog of difficulties from the Dalek invasion were deemed more important and so, the footage was not seen until five days later. By then, it was already overshadowed by the strange dreams that everyone on Earth was having and Dr Rachel Anne was not one of their main priorities any longer. Of course even Martha Jones, who had seen many strange things with the Doctor, would not have known what to make of the lightsaber but it might have helped later on.

Wouldn't you like to know why? You'll just have to wait a day or so for the next update. Please review.


	8. Chapter 8

Glad you liked the updates. This one is a lot faster for a number of reasons. Please continue to review.

The Rani paused and listened again as the laughter echoed through her mind. She knew that laugh, after spending quite some time in a derelict TARDIS trying to get it fixed. She had really loathed it by the time they were done and time had not improved it.

"Of all people, he has to survive!" she said angrily. Donna looked up from her welding and gave her an inquiring look. "The Master," The Rani said and then grabbed Donna as the memories nearly broke through the walls of her mind.

"I remember him," Donna said and looked at the Rani with the old, old eyes of the Doctor. "I remember Logopolis as well," she added and then seemed to concentrate. "But I remember him dying," she added and frowned. "Last year, he was Harold Saxon." The Rani blinked and then nodded in understanding. "He refused to regenerate," the Doctor went on. "He had lost and I had captured him but he was shot and he decided to die rather than be my prisoner." The Rani could hear the pain in her voice easily and she hugged her old/new friend.

"He's coming back," the Rani said finally. "I don't know how, but I can sense it." Donna laughed dryly.

"I'm not exactly surprised," she admitted and rolled her eyes. "He's survived dying more times than any Time Lord I've heard of – including Rassilon." She shook her head and bent over her work again, her shields held firmly in place. "Do you know when?" she asked and the Rani shrugged.

"I think that it will be around Christmas," she said and tapped in several commands. "We'll have this done by Christmas Eve," she said with a smile. "And if you alone were able to beat him before, we should be able to deal with him." She paused as she had another thought. "If we can get him alive then we can harvest some genetic tissue for diversity." She saw Donna's puzzled expression and shrugged. "Well, I think we could do without it but a nice wide diversity in our species will help and since we aren't related to each other that will help things."

"Are you suggesting that we use the Master of all people as a sperm donor?" Donna looked rather uncomfortable.

"Well, considering I could make the facilities for artificial wombs, we can probably eliminate psychosis in the children quite easily and they would likely have to be a mixture of the three of us."

"You're talking about rebuilding the Time Lord race," Donna said and frowned. "On Earth?" she asked cautiously.

"Considering how many times Earth has been invaded, I think that we would need to find a better location," the Rani pointed out. "If we can find where you left your TARDIS, we can use that at first and find an empty world to put them on." She smiled suddenly. "Of course, you are the only one who has experience in parenting," she said ruefully. "But it might actually help the Master to have children."

"I'm not sure about that," Donna said in the dry voice that the Rani remembered from the Doctor's first regeneration. "Considering how my children nearly drove me insane." She grinned at a memory and then closed her shields. "It's getting harder and harder to concentrate," she said and shook her head. "Good thing this is almost done. One more week and I won't have to worry," she said longingly. "Even so, I think we could safely ask for a few of my friends to help us there," she added and the Rani realized she had slipped back to the former topic.

"That would help," she agreed. "Of course, we still don't know what he is trying to do, so we shouldn't count our chickens before they're hatched." Donna looked at her in bewilderment. "A human saying," the Rani explained. "I wish we could talk to UNIT but until you are restored they will be very suspicious of us."

"We'll just have to wing it," Donna said and chuckled. "Like I usually do, I seem to remember."

"UNIT is trying to figure things out as well," the Rani said thoughtfully. "We may even end up in the same place. That would make things easier but I doubt it will be so simple."

"It never is," Donna said and turned off the welding torch. "That should be that," she said in great satisfaction. "All that remains is the software configuration. Afterwards, this will be ready to be activated, at last." She gave the recalcitrant machinery a glare and then turned to the Rani. "We'd better take care of the backlog now."

UNIT headquarters were busy, the peculiar dreams that everyone was having being a fairly clearly indication that something bad was about to happen. Martha had recognized both the laugh and the face but she had been unable to reach the Doctor. That had been very worrying and she had called Sarah Jane Smith, who had also had problems with contacting him. She was getting very worried. Then she eyed the documents she had been saving for the Doctor and smiled. From all accounts, Dr Rachel Anne was at worst neutral and she seemed to be friendly. She picked up the phone and rang the number.

"Hello is this Dr Rachel Anne?" she asked into the mouthpiece. "I need to talk to you about some odd dreams that quite a few people are having, of a certain person that you might know, called the Master. I think we might need to talk about some things." The response was quick and to the point.

"Tomorrow, about ten a.m," Dr Anne said in a quiet voice that sounded cranky. "I'll be over there anyway, with the stuff you have ordered from me, and we can talk then. Be seeing you," she added and rang off. Martha wondered a little at the tone and then looked at the clock. It showed that it was past midnight and she flushed as she realized what she had done.

"You really need to break that bad habit," Colonel Mace said from the doorway. "I take it you are going to grill her?" he added questioningly.

"Possibly, but what I want to know is if she can help us shield against the dreams," Martha said. "I might grill her a bit but that is a secondary objective." She held up a disc. "This was from last week,' she said and shook her head. "I must say, it was quite informative." She handed it to the Colonel.

"I'll watch this," he said and looked at her desk. "You seem to have dealt with all the paperwork, I'm impressed." Martha smiled wryly.

"Frankly I don't really want to go to sleep," she admitted. "I'd rather muddle through paperwork than dream." She shuddered. "I still have nightmares about him even without the inducement."

"I'd advise a bottle of scotch but you'll need your head about you tomorrow." Colonel Mace shrugged and then smiled. "On the plus side, I believe Brigadier Leithbridge-Stewart is coming in tomorrow."

"He is?" Martha stared at him and then grinned. "That makes me feel a lot better. I just wish we were in touch with the Doctor but I suspect that he will have the good timing as always." She sighed in faint irritation. "I just wish we knew for certain."

"I believe the Doctor once said that not knowing was what made traveling so much fun," Colonel Mace said with a wry smile. "Go get some rest, Commander. I can't make it an order but I would strongly advise it." Martha nodded and almost collapsed on the couch.

"I don't think I can make it to my bed," she said sleepily. "Close the door behind you please." The Colonel nodded and left, taking the disc with him.

The next day dawned bright and early; the light from the opened window blinds striking Martha in her eyes. She looked blearily at the clock and then the time registered. It was 9 o'clock and she had to make it to her office and get cleaned up and showered, not to mention breakfast, before Dr Anne came to see her. She jumped up and nearly cannoned into her desk in her haste.

The Rani arrived at the UNIT building at precisely 9:30 a.m and was done with her business in less than a quarter of an hour. She had been working on the air scrubber in the ATMOS device and had to admit it was a lovely complex puzzle, but she had cracked it for the humans. She wasn't sure why Martha Jones had wanted to see her but she did suspect that she had let something slip. She walked into her office and saw a billowing cloud of steam before her. From inside it, she could hear someone pulling clothing on. Then Martha Jones emerged from the cloud and the Rani couldn't help the smile.

"Did I come at a bad time?" she asked politely. Martha shook her head and gestured for her to be seated.

"I have been having a hard time sleeping and so I only woke up a short while ago," she explained.

"Ah, the sleeplessness is hardly surprising given the dreams most people seem to be having," the Rani said with a sympathetic smile. "But you wanted to see me?"

"I want to know how a Jedi can be on Earth," Martha said flatly and the Rani blinked, then smiled.

"It took this long to analyze it?" she asked politely. Martha shook her head in annoyance.

"It was put on the backburner," she admitted and saw the look of offense on Dr Anne's face. Clearly she did not like the idea of being the low priority. "Sorry," Martha added with a smile. Dr Anne gave her a glare but her lips twisted up at the corners. "So how did a Jedi get here?"

"I'm not exactly a Jedi," Dr Anne said and then hesitated. "I have some training but no ability to wield the Force, I'm afraid." She looked at Martha Jones, Commander of Operations for UNIT and took a deep breath. "I am a Time Lord. My name is the Rani."

Hope you like this update.


	9. Chapter 9

Sorry about the delay. Moving takes a bit more work than I thought and I've had to do a bunch of stuff. But here's the next update, enjoy.

Martha Jones looked at the tall dark-haired woman who was sitting across the desk from her. She had not expected the sudden admission but she refused to look surprised.

"I see," she said finally. The Rani looked thoughtfully at her. She had seen the temporal energy that radiated from her and known at once that she had been the Doctor's companion for a while. Only his TARDIS emitted the temporal energy, a flaw that had been fixed in later models. Of course, the energy emitted was harmless but it did tend to increase the latent psychic power of a Time Lord and bond them to the TARDIS permanently. Humans were not quite so affected, but it was easy to notice.

"I'm surprised you haven't asked me what that means," the Rani said, lying through her teeth. She wasn't sure if the human had a lie-detector on her, but if she did, it would be entertaining.

"Ever heard of the Doctor?" Martha said and smiled faintly. "I also met the Master and helped defeat him two years ago." She noticed the look that passed over the Time Lord's face at the mention of the Master.

"I know the Doctor," the Rani said and smiled. "I was a friend of his, but we lost track of each other a long time ago." She paused and added. "I don't suppose you know where he is? I thought he was dead in the Time War." Then she paused. "Do you know about the Time War?"

"The Doctor told me," Martha said. "As to the Doctor's whereabouts, I'm not sure where or when he is at the moment," she added apologetically. Then her eyes narrowed. "He also told me that all the Time Lords were wiped out," she said pointedly.

"Have you heard of a Chameleon Arch?" the Rani asked, clearly expecting a negative.

"Actually I have," Martha replied to the Rani's surprise. "The Doctor once used one."

"He what?" the Rani said and Martha saw utter shock in her eyes. "Who was it used on?"

"He used it to hide himself," she replied and the Rani relaxed slightly. "The Family of Blood were chasing us and so he wanted to hide."

"Why?" the Rani asked, puzzled. "I've heard of their species and the Doctor could easily neutralize them." Then she paused and sighed. "Never mind, I can guess," she said and shook her head. "He wanted to let them die of their own accord."

"Well, yes," Martha said. "You really do know him well." The Rani smiled and her eyes went distant.

"A good friend," she said and chuckled. "A rather strange person, even for a Time Lord, we aren't all like that," she added dryly. "The three of us got along well before the Master," she said the name with distaste and scorn. "The Master went wobbly and left. I was not very gregarious and when the Doctor left, it was a short time before I left Gallifrey as well." She swung her legs onto the desk. "Did he ever talk about me?" she asked curiously.

"He didn't talk about Gallifrey very much," Martha said. "I think it was the Time War." The Rani winced.

"Yes, that makes sense," she said and shrugged. "I wasn't there. The Chameleon Arch was used on me because of my independence." She looked at Martha. "That's why I was so surprised when you said that the Doctor used it," she explained. "It is the worst punishment that the Time Lords had." She shuddered.

"Sorry," Martha said reflexively. "But how did you recover?"

"A Dalek shot me," the Rani said flatly. The word 'Dalek' was filled with a dark emotion that told Martha that this Time Lord was not nearly as nice as the Doctor. "Unfortunately for it, the essence of Time Lord in my watch was quite deadly to the creature. After that, I recovered my mind, although some memories were damaged in the destruction. I cannot remember several years, but they were boring years anyway." She grinned and Martha blinked at the sudden resemblance to the Doctor.

"Tell me, are you and the Doctor related?" she asked suddenly. The Rani looked at her in surprise, and then nodded slowly.

"We were distantly related," she said cautiously. "Most Time Lords are cousins in some way. Why?"

"Because you very much resemble him," Martha said. "You even smile the same way." The Rani looked at her in surprise.

"Interesting," she said finally. "But I suspect that that has more to do with our friendship over – goodness, over centuries," she added, her mind thinking back. "I honestly cannot remember a moment in my childhood without him as my friend." The Rani frowned thoughtfully. "Of course, I know that we met only when I turned three but that is still a long time."

"And you were friends with the Master?" Martha asked and saw the flash of distaste again.

"Not the Master then," she said quietly. "But yes, I knew him almost as well." She looked up and her eyes bored into Martha's like gimlets. "You've been having dreams," she said flatly. "Dreams about him returning."

"Yes," Martha admitted.

"I think I can help defeat him if the Doctor is late," the Rani said firmly. "I will not kill him, I knew him too long, but I can and will contain him." She shrugged and then reached into her pocket. "The Doctor probably still has a sonic screwdriver," she said and pulled out a slim pen-shaped object that was very familiar. "So you know what this is."

"Yes," Martha said and eyed it cautiously. She had seen the Doctor do more than a thousand things with his tool and she was fairly sure that it could be used as a weapon. Then she blinked as the Rani pulled out a brown bag from a pocket that was definitely too small for it.

"Jelly baby?" the Rani asked, noticing the look. She held out the bag politely and Martha took a handful with a bemused smile. The Rani popped one into her mouth. "The Doctor was the one who got me hooked on these things," she said and took another. "They affect our metabolism a bit like coffee, Earth sugars, I mean. And they taste marvelous," she added with a grin. Martha couldn't help laughing.

"You really are like the Doctor," she said after subsiding. The Rani looked faintly sheepish but took another jelly baby from the bag.

"Yes, well I did say we were old friends," she said. "Even so, I wish I had been able to meet him before he left." Then she paused and looked at Martha Jones thoughtfully. "Why were you watching me?"

"Because of Donna Noble," Martha said before she could think and then winced. The Rani was altogether too easy to talk to and her resemblance to the Doctor was unnerving.

"What about Donna?" the Rani asked without even a hint of her knowledge. Martha looked at her and tried to think of her without bias. She was a Time Lord, a friend of the Doctor's but so had been the Master. On the other hand, aside from the mention of Daleks, she had been perfectly pleasant and nice.

"Donna is a bit complicated," Martha said in an understatement. The Rani narrowed her eyes, clearly trying to put things together. Then her eyes widened.

"Hold on," she said. "She reminds me a great deal of the Doctor. Is she his daughter by any chance? Because I don't think she told me what happened to her dad."

"No," said Martha with a smile. "The Doctor called her a metacrisis." She hoped desperately that the Rani would know what that meant.

"From what?" the Rani asked and then stiffened. "I thought I felt a regeneration," she said thoughtfully.

"I don't know the details," Martha said apologetically. "The Doctor stored his regeneration energy in a hand that he had lost during the first 24 hours of his last regeneration and Donna touched it."

"Then she should be a Time Lord," the Rani said and shook her head. "I would have sensed that on her."

"She only received part of the energy, gaining a Time Lord mind without a Time Lord body." She noticed the Rani winced at that. "The Doctor removed that portion of her memory that would activate them after he learned this. She saved the world and she can't remember or she would die."

"That explains a great deal," the Rani said and inwardly shook her head. It explained everything, but also meant that her machine would still work. She debated telling Martha and decided to keep it quiet.

"I will be careful around her," she said finally. "You don't mind if I work on the problem a bit though, do you?"

"The Doctor had no ideas," Martha began but the Rani cut her off.

"I am not as brilliant as the Doctor in some areas but I know at least a bit more than him about in the software of minds." She seemed rather amused and Martha got the feeling that the two had a slight rivalry about their fields.

"Alright," she said and resolved to tell the Doctor as soon as she could. The Rani was a lot less deranged than the Master, or the Doctor for that matter, but she still seemed odd. "Why the lightsaber?" she asked finally.

"I went there once," the Rani said and grinned. "I've got no talent with the Force but I was quite good at compensating for that with my skills. I built the lightsaber from memory and know how to use it very well." She shrugged. "The Doctor was there as well and we sparred a bit but he was able to use the Force slightly." Martha looked at her in utter surprise and the Rani smiled. "He never told you?" she asked. "He always was modest about those things. He was good enough to be a Jedi Knight if he'd wanted to be but he was too filled with wanderlust."

"It's not hard to imagine that," Martha said slowly. "Odd to think about it. So the movies are accurate?"

"No," the Rani said. "They are old stories that got to Earth through a very odd route. The Doctor saw them on a trip to Earth and persuaded me to go investigate." The Rani suddenly seemed embarrassed. "You should ask him about that."

"Why?" she asked, wondering at the sudden reluctance. "Was it like the movies?"

"No," the Rani said and coughed. "It had been, apparently. I found out about the conspiracy that the Sith were planning and acted." Now she looked very embarrassed. "The Clone Wars were derailed by that." Martha looked at the Rani, who was looking very uncomfortable.

"You meddled with time as much as that?" she asked incredulously. "You_ destroyed the Empire before it existed_?" She slumped back in her chair. "And the Doctor didn't stop you?"

"We had only watched the first three," the Rani said defensively. "How was I supposed to know the Sith Lord who was running a war was the Emperor? All I knew was that there was someone who was trying to get a lot of people killed and the Doctor helped me stop them. And then we found out the Emperor's name." She shook her head in remembered shock. "The Doctor laughed himself to the floor," she added defensively. Martha couldn't help laughing weakly and the Rani gave her a look.

"I can easily picture you doing that," she said finally. "So why are there the movies?"

"Because we handed the stories directly to the people who talked to the director," the Rani said and shrugged. "We got away with it easily, since the Time Lords were ignoring their problem children."

"I wouldn't mind hearing some more about that," Martha said and the Rani beamed, then looked at her watch and hissed in irritation.

"I should be getting back," she said and Martha realized that they had lost track of time. "I'll send you an e-mail for a protective shield. It should repel even Dalek weapons and I'll have a few particle cannons built for you. If the Earth is threatened again, I think that UNIT should be able to stop it." She stood up and bowed. "I've got a few projects on the boil," she added. "But I think that after Christmas, we can sit down and I can tell you some of my stories."

"Ever meet anyone famous?" Martha asked with a smile. The Rani nodded.

"You've heard of Joan of Arc?" she asked. When Martha nodded, the Rani grinned. "That was me." She exited the room before Martha could ask her for more information.

"How did it go?" Donna asked as the Rani walked in.

"I talked to Martha Jones," the Rani said and saw the memory flare in Donna's eyes.

"And what did she have to say?" Donna asked. The Rani sighed.

"Okay," she said and sat down. "This is where it gets complicated."

The pieces were in place. The Master was returning from his death and soon the Doctor would join the battle, beginning their freedom from the Time War. All was as planned. Unfortunately, the one who thought this was unaware of the presence that lurked in darkness for now.

The End of Time was coming fast, but the power that was marshaled against it was far greater than even those who watched could realize. Three Lords of Time would be there, one was coming, one would come and one was there, the three renegades who refused to die, three old friends who had been at odds for a long time. The countdown of eternity has begun.

Please review.


	10. Chapter 10

Sorry about the delay. I have, however, made several updates which will be released all at once. I hope that makes up for the wait. Enjoy!

It was Christmas Eve, the prelude to the longest night of the year. The Rani had never been quite sure what the holiday was about, though she had a vague idea that someone named Santa climbed down people's chimneys at night. She wasn't sure why he wasn't arrested, but she had several defense systems on the roof to deal with him if he came here.

"Are we ready?" Donna asked, breaking the silence. The Rani blinked and then nodded.

"We'll wait until tomorrow," she said and then stiffened as a ripple in time swept over the Earth. "I think we should be ready for emergencies," she said and looked at Donna.

"What was that?" Donna asked, her head pounding with the sudden energy wave.

"That would be a TARDIS entering this timeframe," the Rani said and frowned. She hadn't told Donna everything, deciding to wait and let her realize who she was on her own, but a TARDIS meant the Doctor, at least nowadays. "I'll see if I can determine where it is."

"I need to be heading home soon," Donna pointed out. "If I remember right, I've been here before." She shrugged and then knelt to inspect the machine.

"Theoretically we could do this today," the Rani said, still trying to pin down the odd feeling. It was almost like having double vision, but in her head, a sensation that would make most humans look at her as if she were insane.

"Rani, are you alright?" Donna's voice broke in on her thoughts. Donna was looking exasperated. "I said that we should probably wait until tomorrow so we can double-check things." The Rani nodded and realized that she had been 'zoning out' as humans said.

"I'm fine, just trying to remember something," she replied. Donna gave her a look that told her that she was not fooling Donna at all, but held her peace, seeing the closed down expression that meant the Rani was thinking hard about something. "How would he come back?" the Rani finally said aloud.

"The Master?" Donna thought about the logic problem. "He could have a duplicate, but that would not be his style." She paused and then brightened. "Whatever it is, it would require a vast amount of energy, if he wanted a Time Lord body and mind, anyway. We can set up a scanner to find that."

"We'll do that tomorrow," the Rani said and waited until Donna was gone. Then she closed her eyes and tried to focus. The Vortex twisted and turned, but her mind rode the current. A Time Lord saw the whole of time and space, but focusing on a certain point was immeasurably difficult.

Then she saw the bending of space around a brown-haired man in a brown suit and smiled. The Doctor was in. But there was another bending nearby and she widened her gaze – and looked full into the mad eyes of the Master. She jerked back in her chair and gasped in shock. The vision faded, but she had the distinct impression that the Master had noticed her.

"Lovely," she muttered to herself. "The last of the Time Lords, a madman, a homicidal madman, a human who nearly dies every time she remembers things, and me, and I seem to be the sanest person of the lot." This would probably have caused anyone who had known her on Gallifrey to laugh at the thought of the Rani being the sanest of _anyone_, but it was true nonetheless. She sighed and stood up. "I need to find them and help," she said aloud and reached into her pocket for a jelly baby.

The Doctor was irritated at the delay but knew he should have taken a look at this Dr Anne before. Wilf had convinced him from what he had said that if she wasn't an enemy, she could be very handy. He walked up to the door and was almost knocked over by it as it opened.

"Sorry about that," said a voice from the gloomy interior. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," the Doctor said and stepped forwards, trying to see inside. "I'm John Smith, UNIT. I was told you could help me." He picked out the form of what looked like a human just inside the doorway.

"John Smith?" the voice said, heavy with amusement. "I see. I'll need to see your identification, but you can come on in. It's hard to see you out there." The Doctor stepped forward and smiled his most winning smile at the peculiar Dr Anne, pulling out his psychic paper. Then he looked at her and froze.

"What?" he said and saw her looking back with the same shock. "What?"

"What are you doing here, Doctor?" the Rani inquired, flabbergasted that she had not sensed him before visual contact. The Doctor gaped at her and she was hard-pressed not to laugh at the utter shock in his expression. Then it changed and the Doctor grinned widely.

"Rani!" he said and before she knew it, he was hugging her tightly. For a moment she was too surprised to react but then hugged back. Their minds touched and both could feel each other singing with joy at the other's presence.

"It's me, Doctor," she said and kicked the door closed. "I am very glad to see you again." The plain words would have sounded fairly stilted to humans, but to the two Time Lords, a universe of feeling was in them. The mental link was easier to reestablish then the Rani had thought and they could feel each other's joy. The Rani felt like staying like that, but she knew that the Doctor had come about something urgent. "So what's the problem?" she asked and pulled back to see his face, a new one since she had last seen him but one she knew from pictures.

"Why do you always assume there's a problem?" the Doctor asked with a smile. The Rani gave him the same look she usually gave and he grinned widely.

"I assume that you came here to see if I was using your former companion for something nefarious," she said and gestured him towards a seat. The Doctor nodded and then raised an eyebrow.

"Are you?" he asked playfully. The Rani rolled her eyes. He really didn't change at all.

"I've been trying to figure out how to solve the metacrisis in her for a while," she said and shrugged. "I have a few ideas, naturally. I always was better at that then you." She grinned at him and he laughed.

The Doctor realized that he hadn't felt this delighted since he had turned and seen Rose running towards him. He stared at his old friend. It was odd how little she had changed since he'd seen her last.

"I suppose we should get down to business," he said and leaned back. "You probably know about the dreams people have been having," he began.

"Donna told me about them," the Rani said, nodding. "The Master is returning?"

"He has returned," the Doctor said, closing his eyes and letting her go through the memories. "I need your help finding him. We may even be able to help him, working together," he added thoughtfully. The Rani frowned thoughtfully.

"Possibly," she said and then nodded. "I will be glad to try. As to locating him, that is a bit trickier. How did you learn of his arrival?"

"Ever heard of the Ood?" the Doctor asked her. She blinked at the apparent _non sequiter_ and shook her head. "They contacted me and warned me that something is returning. A telepathic race, they were able to show me a great deal." He sent the memories of the link into her mind and saw her blink in shock.

"This is disturbing," she said and stood up and began to pace. "The faces of those humans, they looked familiar somehow." She turned to face him. "I'll try to remember them. In the meantime, we need to find the Master. He is somehow crucial to whatever will happen."

"We can use our combined minds to dowse for him," the Doctor said and stood up as well. "Once we've found him, I'll bring him here and we can figure out the rest of the people then." The Rani nodded. The Master was more likely to listen to the Doctor than her.

"Be careful," she said and the Doctor looked at her with wide innocent eyes.

"When am I not careful?" he asked with a grin. The Rani gave him a look that she had seen Donna use several times to quell people. It seemed to have no effect.

"Let's see what we can see," she said instead and closed her eyes. The Doctor was physically several feet from her, but their minds had become almost completely intertwined during their hug. It was almost ridiculously easy for the two of them to locate the third Time Lord on Earth.

"I'm glad to see you as well," the Doctor said as they opened their eyes. "But I am glad that we don't have to tell each other where we've been. That would be rather tedious."

"Don't think you're off the hook," the Rani said with a teasing smile. "I'll expect a full account of what you've been up to since I last saw you. But that can wait." She watched him run off and smiled. She had forgotten how it felt when the Doctor was around. But she had a feeling that things would not go as simply as he had said.

* * *

Donna was worried. Her Time Lord mind was almost screaming that there was a problem that meant time itself was in jeopardy, but she could barely approach those senses without a burning headache. She had been tempted to use the device at once but a sense of caution made her want to be absolutely sure that it was ready. Tomorrow was Christmas Day and generally the bad things seemed to happen at that time, so she still had time.

* * *

The Master lurked, though the word seemed to lack class it seemed appropriate, in the warehouse. He had felt the Doctor looking for him and knew that he was coming. Well he was ready. His botched revival had made him dependent on draining life-energy from people, but even the Doctor would be daunted by the bolts of life-energy that he could throw.

Then he looked down at his hands and realized that they were trembling. He was afraid. The thought made him want to scream in anger but there was no denying it. The Doctor had beaten him, time and time again; no matter how perfect his trap or detailed his plan, the Doctor always won in the end, even when he lost at first. It was infuriating and terrifying, but true.

* * *

The Doctor walked calmly through the warehouse, feeling the presence of the Master, flickering and angry, moving towards him. He reached an alley and saw the Master standing at the far end. They stared at each other and then the Doctor began walking forward. The Master stepped back and then thrust out his hand, focusing a lightning bolt through it. The Doctor ignored it as it struck a pile of debris several feet to his left and continued walking. The Master backed up again and bumped into the wall. This seemed to hearten him and he lashed out again. This bolt struck to the Doctor's right but closer. He smiled faintly and the Master glared in rage and lashed out again, striking the Doctor at last.

The Doctor felt the blast of energy and slumped at the unexpected power. He had been prepared for the blast that a Sith could have used but he had left out the fact that the Master was a Time Lord. His attack was fueled by the failed regeneration and all the energy that sustained a Time Lord for centuries without dying was being poured into the blast. He collapsed to his knees and saw through the pain that the Master was approaching with a worried expression.

The Rani stared into the Vortex and felt a headache coming. Something was affecting the entirety of time and space, which should have been impossible. The only ones who had the capability to do this were the Daleks and the Time Lords, and only the three of them were left. That either meant the Doctor or she would mess up, or the Master would cause it. The latter was more likely but she had to be careful. The only thing she had as an indicator was the dreams and those were very cryptic.

She sighed and walked over to the covered table. She had been careful to keep Donna from knowing what she was building, just as a precaution. Only the Time Lords had the capability to come back from the dead even from the deadliest weapons ever made. This had naturally led to them learning how to make weapons to kill each other despite this. She picked up the small weapon and smiled grimly. If needs be, she would use this on the Master and let the Doctor be angry rather than let this world die.

The Rani sighed and stretched out her mind to the Doctor – and found him giving off signs of injury. The Master was farther away and seemed angry. From what she could determine, he had been captured and for a moment, she wondered if UNIT had been following the Doctor. But no, she would have been contacted by now. Someone else, the ones the Ood had seen, were interfering. This was worrying. She holstered her weapon carefully and walked over to the closet, pulling out a specific lab coat. All of them were designed with extra-dimensional pockets, but this one was bullet-proof and could even ward off most energy weapons on its force field. She draped it over her sparse frame and wondered idly if she should bring the equipment that she had made for Donna's condition.

* * *

Donna was tossing and turning, her mind unconsciously sensing the currents of time as the Rani had. The Doctor was too focused on the Master and the drums were beating too loudly for the Master to sense it, but her mind was free to feel. She had already almost broken the shields around her mind and the ripples were making it even worse, tearing away the boundaries. She fought her panic down and closed her eyes. The Vortex was there but she reached into her mind and shored up the walls of thought. Tomorrow it would be over, but she resolved to go to the lab as soon as she could.

The pieces were in place, the Time Lords beginning their return. But they did not know their enemies power, nor saw the puppeteer that ever so carefully moved to counter the End of Time. She smiled and it was a smile that promised destruction.

"My dear Doctor, once again you will protect these worlds as you have before," she said and bent over the chessboard. The pieces were carved to resemble the players, the mad Time Lord the Master, the Doctor, healer and protector, the Rani, scientist and seeker of knowledge, and the human who would become so much more on the next day. The opposing side was imposing, the Council itself ranged against them and the menacing figure of Rassilon. She smiled at the figure and the smile was predatory. "You will never know how much I hate you, my old friend. The only thing I want to see before I die is your death." Her voice was calm and deadly. "You tried to strike down my Doctor and you will die, and so will I. The Time Lords will live on in these few. And you will no longer exist!" She struck the board and the pieces shuddered. "For the good of the universe, for the one you drove mad by your machinations and for Time itself, you must die. I am sorry." She closed her eyes and reached out. "Wilfred Motts, you must aid the Doctor. And bring your gun."

Hope you like it. Please review.


	11. Chapter 11

As promised, the next installment. Enjoy.

The Rani paused on the street and frowned. She had been expecting the Doctor to head towards her but he seemed to have decided to go towards Donna's house. She quickened her pace and wished again that she had brought the equipment to fix Donna. Then all three – four if you counted her grandfather – would be able to deal with the problem at once. Then she felt Donna's mind brush against her and nearly swore. The damage that the Vortex was doing to the mental walls surrounding Donna's mind was enormous. This was something that she needed to deal with at once. She started running. Several people looked oddly at her and, thinking fast, she waved to one of them.

"Excuse me, are the trains still running?" she asked and saw them relax as her reason became apparent. The person she had asked nodded and she continued running. Humans were very good at ignoring inconsistencies once they had an idea in their head. She rounded the corner and hissed in anger as the Doctor's TARDIS disappeared. "You have _got_ to be kidding me!" she shouted at the empty street.

"What are you doing here?" came a voice from the porch. It was Sylvia Noble. The Rani looked at her and then past her at Donna.

"We have an alert from UNIT," she said, improvising quickly. "There's someone planning to destroy this part of London. They should be able to stop them but we need to get into a secure location." She gestured towards the car urgently.

"Let me get my stuff," Donna said and rushed back inside. Her mother was right behind her. The Rani pointed her sonic screwdriver at the door and it opened easily. She slid into the driver's seat and tried to remember how this sort of mechanism worked. As Dr Anne, she had been fairly proficient but it was hard to remember what was in a mere fraction of her lifespan. Still, it was a fairly simple mechanism at least.

"You're driving?" Donna asked as she sprinted up to the door. She had a large backpack and a trunk of dubious lineage in her hands. "Didn't know you could," she added.

"It looks simple enough," the Rani said cheerfully and dumped the luggage into the trunk. "Get in, quickly. The Master is about to begin something and I need you under cover of our shield." She broke off as she noticed Sylvia Noble exiting her home with an ever larger trunk than Donna's and hurried towards them.

"Should we warn people?" she asked as she reached them. The Rani shook her head.

"Most people aren't in the city because of stuff like this," she said and laughed. "Sensible people, I've often thought." She waited until her passengers were buckled securely and then peeled out of the driveway at what seemed to Donna to be more than a hundred miles an hour.

"Are we in that much of a hurry?" she asked as the Rani actually accelerated.

"I'm not really sure," the Rani said with a shrug and took a corner without slowing. "Better safe than sorry," she added as she threaded the needle between two other cars. Donna would have pointed out the inconsistencies in this statement if she hadn't been crushed against her seat by the G-forces. Idly, a portion of her mind calculated the rate that the car was going and she was surprised to realize that they were only going 80 miles an hour. Once she'd stopped worrying about crashing, it was actually very fun.

"Do we need to worry about attacks at us?" Donna asked as they reached their lab. The Rani shook her head and dragged the luggage from the trunk with the same surprising strength that Donna somewhat remembered from before.

"No one knows about us," she said and dragged the luggage inside before Donna had opened her mother's door. Sylvia Noble did not seem more than slightly winded by the drive but she was looking at Donna with a worrying expression. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," her mother said and walked up the drive with her. "How much have you remembered?" Donna looked up sharply and met the piercing gaze that had seen right through her excuses throughout her childhood.

"Quite a bit," she said and then her head jerked up as she felt something odd happening. Sylvia saw a face suddenly superimposed on her vision and shuddered.

"Get in!" the Rani shouted and the two of them ran down the walkway. The Rani slammed the door and the vision was gone from Sylvia's eyes. "The shield will hold, but I'm not even sure what this is!" She bent over a keyboard and then froze suddenly. "No," she said softly. "That sort of technology should have been dealt with before anyone could use it."

"What technology?" Donna asked and strode over to the screen. On it, there were pictures of people standing still and blurring.

"Healing technology of this caliber is highly restricted because of this," the Rani said, tapping several controls. "It relies on the base state of health, and if you change that."

"You mean someone is overwriting humans?" Sylvia said incredulously. Both Donna and Dr Anne looked at her in surprise. "I paid attention in university," she said and frowned at them. "Biology is easy to remember. Someone is overwriting the DNA of humanity and replacing it with something else?"

"Yes, that's exactly it," the Rani said with surprise. She had not expected such quick understanding. "There should be a way around it but I need to know what kind of device they are using." She picked up a device and twisted several knobs. It emitted a humming noise and she muttered something under her breath.

"I take it that is a bad noise," Donna said. The Rani shrugged.

"On the plus side, it isn't one that is permanent," she said and set the device down. "But I'm going to have to physically go to it and break it." She looked at Donna's mother and then at Donna.

"When did you figure out what happened?" Sylvia asked bluntly. The Rani rocked back on her heels and darted another look at Donna.

"As soon as I saw her, I figured there was something odd going on," she said and shrugged. "I saw the residue of time travel on her, but I assumed she had been a victim of a Weeping Angel or something like it. When she told me about her lost memories, the pieces began fitting together." The Rani picked up an odd helmet-like device and handed it to Donna. "This will give you all your memories back and adjust your mind to fit them," she said and then turned to Sylvia. "That was actually what we were working on for a Christmas present for you and her granddad. Sorry about the secrecy, but she wanted to surprise you," she added and gave a rueful grin. Donna placed the helmet on her head and reached up to flip the switch. The Rani grabbed her hand. "Sit down first," she said pointedly.

"And that will give her all her memories back without hurting her?" Sylvia asked worriedly. The Rani nodded briskly. Sylvia had learned enough about her that she could tell this nod was both confident and faintly indignant that she should be doubted. Donna sat down and closed her eyes and flipped the switch.

* * *

Martha Jones was very close to panicking as the whole world was transformed around her. Fortunately the shields had worked but they could easily see the outside and it was very unpleasant. The Master had somehow copied himself onto everyone not protected, and the result was terrifying.

"How could he have done this?" she muttered aloud and glanced to her left. Captain Jack Harkness shook his head in horrified wonder.

"This reminds me of how I met the Doctor," he said and shuddered at the memory. "Nanites were spreading outwards from a crashed medical ship and they were using the wrong template for humans, a boy who'd been badly injured by a bomb. This was during the Blitz, by the way. The Doctor fixed it but I never thought that someone would – or could – do something like this!" He glared at the screen and then closed his eyes. "My team is all accounted for," he said and Martha breathed a sigh of relief.

"Most of our people were on alert when this happened," she said and walked over to her desk. "With Project Indigo fully operational, we were able to get our people inside the shield in time, but that won't help if we can't reverse this." She collapsed into her chair and wondered again how the Doctor dealt with the stress. She had never fully appreciated how hard it was for the leaders of UNIT until she had had her duty thrust upon her. Now she was responsible for the defense of Earth and its environs, and she was not sure what to do. Then the phone rang.

"A very impressive shield, Martha Jones," said a very familiar voice. Martha smiled.

"Glad you like it Harry," she said. She remembered the Doctor's attitude and tried to relax. "I see you've got your ugly mug on TV again," she added.

"Every TV," said the Master and he laughed. "I see you haven't changed a bit."

"Why would I?" she asked, trying to keep him talking. There was something odd about his tone.

"You really are in trouble," he said. "Perhaps you've noticed that I now control the arsenal of your planet. I could easily simply bombard those shields until they crack." Martha laughed.

"The missile defenses are just as advanced as our shields," she said with a trace of scorn in her voice. "Any missile that is sent will be shot down, even if you could breach the shields."

"Anyway, all we have to do is wait for you to mess yourself up as usual," Jack said, pressing the speaker control. "From what I've read of your last exploits, I'm not impressed."

"Very arrogant for a pathetic primate like you," the Master snarled. "Be seeing you." He slammed down the phone and turned towards the Doctor, tied up in a chair. "How did they develop those shields?"

"I honestly don't know," the Doctor said. He had been relieved and very bewildered to see that UNIT had shielded against the Master's attack. As far as he could tell, it was at least ten thousand years ahead of their technology and that was a conservative estimate. "I'm as surprised as you are."

"I'm not as surprised as you might think," the Master said and glared at him. "I expected them to want a defense against enemies. What I didn't expect was a shield that worked against me." Then he turned swiftly as a phone rang. "They seem to be calling you Doctor," he said and then realized that it was coming from the human, Wilfred Motts. He crossed the room quickly and grabbed the cell phone. "Why would UNIT call you?" he asked and then read the name. "Who's Donna?"

* * *

Donna paced worriedly around the lab, her concern rising with every ring. Finally it was answered and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Granddad?" she said. "This is Donna. Is the Doctor there as well?"

"I'm sorry, but he can't come to the phone," said a voice that resonated with several memories. "He's rather tied up at the moment."

"I see," Donna said. "Well, tell him that we figured out some moron named the Master has used a healing device to convert humanity to his twisted image. Frankly, from what I've heard, I'm surprised he didn't blow himself up but he must have gotten lucky there." She grinned at the choking sounds coming from the phone. "And now that I've suitably entertained you, why don't you give my grandfather the phone so I can get on with things?"

"Who are you?" the Master said with a venomous snarl. Donna made a tsking noise into the phone.

"I don't recall calling you, whoever this is. It's rather rude of you to use someone else's phone without asking." She stifled a laugh at the noises that emanated from the phone. It really was too easy.

The Doctor wasn't sure what was going on but he knew that tone of voice. Donna had her memories back and was somehow not dead. He grinned and the Master glared murderously at him.

"It's not too late," the Doctor said. "I don't want this to end like last time. Let me help you."

"Who is Donna Noble?" the Master snarled. "What is she?"

"You could ask me that y'know," Donna said. "I could tell you that easily."

"Then what are you?" the Master asked in a vexed voice.

"What are you?" Donna asked in return. "You answer that one first."

"I am the Master," he hissed after giving the phone a look that should have made it burst into flame.

"That would explain your temper," Donna said flippantly. "I'm Donna Noble, and I had the mind of the Doctor copied onto my mind. I know all about you by the way," she added with a laugh that sounded rather creepy and left the Master slightly worried about her sanity. He looked at the Doctor and saw the shock but also that he did not disbelieve it.

"So what are you, his daughter?" the Master asked with a laugh. "A human cannot survive that for very long, you know." There was a faint laugh from the phone, but the Master stiffened as his ears picked up the anomaly. The sound had come from his end. He turned suddenly and stared into eyes that glowed with the fires of time.

"Hello Koschei," the Rani said as she closed the teleporter in her hand with a snap that echoed in the silence. "It really has been too long."

Enjoy and please review.


	12. Chapter 12

And here's the next chapter! I just wish I didn't have to move or I would have a lot more done. Ah well, mea culpa. Enjoy.

The Master was utterly shocked. He had expected the Doctor but this was an entirely different Time Lord.

"You seem surprised," she said with a grin and dropped the teleporter into her pocket. She was wearing a long lab coat that seemed to have more pockets than was normal and her clothing was dark grey in color. Her eyes were losing the glowing light of the Vortex but he could see the powerful mind of a Time Lord in them. She seemed familiar.

"Who are you?" he asked and looked quickly at the Doctor. "How did you get here?"

"I used a teleporter of course," she replied and gave him a look that said that he should have known that straight off. The look gave him the last clue.

"You?" he said incredulously. "Rani? But I thought you were dead."

"And I thought you were dead," the Rani pointed out and looked over at the Doctor. "Having fun?" she asked with a smile, taking in his tied-up condition. The Doctor gave her a look. The Master took in the Doctor's face and narrowed his eyes.

"You knew she was alive," he said accusingly. "You knew she had survived the Time War."

"Actually, I only found this out yesterday," the Doctor said and shrugged as best he could. "She was in hiding and doing it very well. I was not aware that she was capable of creating a personal teleporter so quickly though." He shrugged again. "I didn't tell you because I'm not daft enough to do that."

"Good thing," the Rani said and then looked closely at the Master. "Are you alright?" she asked in concern. The Master stiffened and glared at her.

"I'm fine," he said bluntly, in the same manner he'd used when he'd fallen out of a tree and broken a rib and almost his neck. The Rani looked closer and saw the subtle signs of deterioration.

Wilfred Motts was rapidly realizing that he was the only human in the room. Dr Anne was acting like she always had but when he looked at the other two; he realized why he had almost mistaken her for the Doctor. Their body language was the same or close to it. He also noticed that though she seemed to be watching only the Master, she stood where she could see the door as well. On the face of it, their conversation was perfectly polite and calm, but to someone who'd served in wars, the tension was obvious. It was a standoff, the two Time Lords staring at each other and both trying to tell what the other would do.

"Is Donna alright?" he asked and Dr Anne nodded absently.

"We'd planned to surprise you with it for Christmas," she said and the Master's eyes narrowed at the comment. "Circumstances forbade that though."

"You couldn't have," the Master said abruptly. "Even with a Time Lord mind, the process of altering her brain would take years!" Dr Anne looked fairly smug.

"I didn't need to," she said and Wilfred noticed that the two of them were relaxing. Clearly, this debate was something between friends. "All I had to do was put her through the Trial." She grinned even more smugly. "That was easy enough to implement with the right equipment." Both the Doctor and the Master stared at her with expressions of shock.

"You couldn't have built the equipment," the Master said at the same moment the Doctor said: "The Trial couldn't have been that easy for her!"

"As for the equipment, I got some from Torchwood and UNIT, without them knowing," Dr Anne said and then turned to the Doctor. "She had your memories. It isn't that hard to do it again."

"That's brilliant," the Master said and closed his eyes in thought. "Potentially deadly, but even if it was, she could regenerate afterwards, I think." He began to pace. "Theoretically, she would be healed of all wounds by the energy."

"And if she took in the energy, she could actually use it to heal herself even if it wasn't automatic," the Doctor put in. "That is brilliant even for a Time Lord." Then he frowned suddenly. "But we should have noticed that," he objected. The Rani nodded and pulled out a small device.

"Observe," she said and held it out to the Master. He took it and then choked. After a moment, he began to laugh delightedly.

"You built a masking screen!" he said through the laugh. "But that hasn't been used since before we were born." Then he shook his head ruefully. "The only reason they stopped that was because they knew it could be detected easily if looked for. But if no one looks, no one sees." He grinned and handed it back. Wilfred stared at the two of them in disbelief. Somehow, even the Doctor seemed to be forgetting that they were in the middle of attacking each other. It was remarkable how at ease they suddenly were.

"Can I see?" the Doctor and Wilfred looked on in disbelief as Dr Anne walked over and held it in front of him and the Master didn't try to stop her. The Doctor leaned forwards and stared at it with interest. "Oh that is lovely," he said at last. "You've improved on the design, I see." His shoulder moved as if he was trying to hold it and he glanced down in irritation.

"Even so, the complexity would require some very intricate work," the Master said thoughtfully. "In other words, you were working for at least a month, maybe longer." He turned to Dr Anne. "How long have you known about her, anyway?"

"About a month," Dr Anne said promptly. "I've been working on it since I figured out why she had blocked memories of stuff like the Racnoss and the Daleks." Her eyes revealed a sudden burst of anger at the last word and the other two Time Lords had the same brief expression.

"Then you were already ready to heal her when you talked to me," the Doctor said and shook his head. "Do you really have to be so secretive?" Dr Anne shrugged and grinned ruefully. The Master seemed to be thinking hard about something.

"So you helped the Doctor find me?" he asked but it was more of a statement. Dr Anne nodded and the tension mounted again. "That explains the shields too," he added and Dr Anne smiled smugly again.

"Didn't have it as easy as you thought, did you?" she said with a dry tone. "I also upgraded their firewalls and their missile defenses," she added as an afterthought. The Master laughed.

"Not good enough firewalls," he said and pointed towards the computer. "I've already hacked through that. If it weren't for the fact that they have their main computers completely isolated, I would have dealt with them easily." He smiled as she blinked in surprise. "I haven't lost my touch it seems."

"Touché," Dr Anne said grudgingly. "Well played. But I very much doubt you've even found where I was located."

"Not yet," the Master said with a grin. Then his hand lashed out and lightning shot out at Dr Anne. Fast as he was, she was faster. Before it hit, she was dodging and her hand shot out. The Master was thrown back by an unknown force – or possibly Force, Wilfred realized – and she pulled a device from her pocket and pointed it at Wilfred. It buzzed and he found himself suddenly free of restraints, even as two guards burst through the door. Dr Anne looked at them quickly and then grinned.

"A bit too tall," she said with a laugh. "Get them out." Then she turned to the Master even as he unleashed another bolt of lightning at her. She caught it in her hand and smiled back at him. "Is that all you've got?" she said in a mocking voice. The Master snarled at her and leapt forwards. Dr Anne was not prepared for this and his first punch sent her reeling before she could block it. His second punch was blocked and her riposte shoved him back a pace. The two guards removed their helmets and Wilfred recognized them as the two cactus-like aliens who had told the Doctor about the device.

They hurried forward as the Rani slammed a fist into the Master's solar plexus. Apparently, Time Lords were close enough to humans in that respect and the Master gasped for breath. She took that time to look over at the bound Doctor.

"Get him out of here!" she shouted and then hissed in pain as the Master lashed out. She countered but was blocked and saw out of the corner of her eye that the Vinvocci pair had resorted to dragging the restrained Doctor out the door. She grinned and the Master glanced over at them. Her sucker punch landed heavily in his gut and he paled and doubled over. She started forwards to help but stopped herself. The Master straightened and gave her a look of irritation.

"You do realize that there are cameras in here?" he asked irritably. "The Doctor is not getting away this time." The Rani shrugged and reached into her pocket.

"That's his problem," she said and pulled a small cube from her pocket. The Master looked at the Rubik's Cube and gave her an inquiring look. "I've been monitoring the telepathic communications in or around the Earth and I've found some odd ones centered on you. Care to explain?" The Master blinked at her. This was very much unexpected.

"I have no idea..," his voice trailed off and he felt the drums pounding louder, loud enough that the Doctor had been able to hear them. The Rani cocked her head to one side at his sudden silence. "They're louder," he whispered and shuddered. "Someone is calling to me, through the drums." He clutched at his head as the drumming screamed through him. He saw the Rani step forwards and then stop.

"So that's it," she said and frowned. "I wonder what's coming. The Ood said that something was returning, not just you. What did they mean?" Then her head shot around to see the door open and several Masters enter.

"He escaped through a teleporter," one said and then saw the Rani. She had already pulled her spatial dislocater and before the clone could aim for her, she was pressing the button. A corona of temporal energy surrounded her and she was sucked into the Vortex. The Master ran forwards and tried to trace the energy, but felt his life ebbing suddenly as he touched the Vortex. He snarled and turned towards the other Masters.

"Scan the orbit," he said and waved them away. "Ensure that we are all prepared tonight." They left and he turned back to the Eternity Gate. The technology was primitive and unwieldy, but Gallifrey was no longer accessible. For a moment, his memories returned, brought to the surface by his old friends but he shoved it away. The drums were calling and he would finally know their origin.

* * *

Donna looked up as the Rani stepped out of the Vortex.

"Took you long enough," she said and beckoned her over. "I've hacked their defense network, got it all set up before you left. The weapons will only go where we wish them." Her fingers flew over the keyboard at an impressive rate. "I'm working on the rest of it, but there are some very impressive overrides in these things. Several of them are completely isolated." The Rani nodded and slumped onto a chair.

"He's learned several new tricks," she said wearily. "We can get through by hacking the carrier signal for whatever is tormenting him, but I think we may have a bigger problem."

"Well, cheer up spacegirl," Donna said and grinned. She typed in another rapid line and the lab was filled the humming sound of a TARDIS materializing. "The Time Lords could mess around with a TARDIS and so can I," she said triumphantly.

"That's brilliant," the Rani said with a smile. "But if someone could reach into a Time Lord's mind, they are a formidable adversary indeed."

"How long has he had the drums in him?" Donna asked and then shook her head. "It's rather odd still to have all these memories," she muttered and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she looked thoughtful. "The Untempered Schism should be impossible to use without the help of a Time Lord," she said slowly. Her mind was, as she had told the Doctor, both human and Time Lord, giving her an added insight. "Occam's Razor," she said and looked at the Rani.

"What exactly do you mean?" the Rani asked, a sinking feeling coming over her. Donna gave her a look that told her she was being dense.

"If only a Time Lord could do that, then it is a Time Lord, or more than one." Donna's mind raced over the possibilities. The Meddling Monk had been in the Time War and anyway, the Master had fought him also. Then the pieces came together. "Oh no," she said and her eyes filled with horror. "Oh no, they couldn't have done that." She turned to the computer and brought up the screen with the mental link, then shook her head and stood up.

"What is it, Donna?" the Rani asked with a note of impatience. She was ignored as Donna strode towards the TARDIS and shoved it open.

"Come on Rani," she said over her shoulder. "We need the computers in here to be sure." The Rani glared at her and stood up, her muscles protesting the movement.

"Sure of what?" she demanded. "What is the matter?" Donna tapped on the screen and shook her head.

"The Untempered Schism is one of the most important parts of the Citadel of Time," she said. "You'd need the permission of the entire Council and there would be guards around at all times. Unless you were already able to access it, and only the Lord President would be able to do that."

"That's impossible," said the Rani flatly. "The Council was rather archaic and moribund by tradition; they would not do something like that."

"The Council before the Time War," Donna said bleakly. "You weren't there to see it, but they changed." The Doctor's memories coruscated through her and she shuddered. "They went mad."

"But how is that possible?" the Rani asked in horror. "The time lock should have sealed them away." Then she shook her head. "They sent it back in time, making the Master. They created him." The horror was gone, replaced by pure unadulterated rage. Her hands clenched into fists. "They twisted my friend into the madman he is today," she said in a cold voice that heralded destruction. Donna nodded.

"And they plan worse, I'd say." She placed a hand on the TARDIS's control panel and shuddered at the memory. "We have to act, but I can't sever the link without time." She bent over the console. "I think I may have an idea," she said finally. The Rani looked at her expectantly, but Donna shook her head. "I need you to keep him thinking we are still there," she said. "If this works, I'll be back in a few hours." She briskly pushed the Rani out into the lab and shut the TARDIS doors.

"She seems a great deal like the Doctor," the Rani said irritably. Sylvia Noble chuckled from where she sat on a bench.

"Actually, Donna has always been like that," she said and smiled. "Stubborn as a mule and very much a take-charge person. It drove me crazy."

"I wonder what she's planning," the Rani said and then turned to the computer. The Master was still dangerous and she had work to do.

Donna Noble pulled the levers, having an odd sense of déjà vu, remembering the Doctor doing so in both her own memories and his. She felt the TARDIS talking to her, showing her the correct levers for what she'd planned. If this worked, she'd have to ask the Doctor to teach her how to properly connect to the TARDIS, she mused. Her Time Lord and human mind ran through the probability patterns again and came up with the same answer: maybe. It was not exactly comforting. She pulled the last lever and the TARDIS went soaring through the Vortex, aimed towards the Master. Donna grinned as the TARDIS spun through space and time.

"Allons-y!" she said and laughed. This was more fun than she'd remembered.

Enjoy this installment and please review.


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